Hear This 10th October 2025

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

S1 (00:18):
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.

S2 (00:33):
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Francis Keelan and
you're listening to the Vision Australia Library radio show, where
we talk about books in the Vision Australia collection. And
on today's show, we've got a lovely interview with author
Alison Booth. And we also have some samples of some
really interesting books, so I hope you enjoy the show.

(00:58):
If you are a regular listener to Vision Australia Radio,
you may hear many of the variety of programs that
we have on the airwaves, but one of them is
behind the scenes. This is Vision Australia's look at the
world of theater arts and culture. It is available as
a podcast from Vision Australia Library. So if your library

(01:20):
member you can download any of those episodes, the whole
archive is there and you can subscribe to it. So
you can just simply get to those podcasts popped onto
your bookshelf weekly to have a listen to what's going
on in the arts around Australia. The host and producer
of the show, Chris Thompson, occasionally gets to chat to

(01:41):
an author as well, and he has given us an
interview with author Alison Booth. Alison Booth we have three
of her books in the library collection already the Gingera trilogy,
starting off with Stillwater Creek Part one. It's 1957, and
after the death of her husband, pianist Ilona Talivaldis and

(02:03):
her nine year old daughter, Zedra travelled to the remote
coastal town of Gingera in New South Wales. Ilona, a
concentration camp survivor from Latvia, is searching for peace and
the opportunity to start anew in her beautiful, vine covered
cottage on the edge of the lagoon. She has plans
to set herself up as a piano teacher. The weeks

(02:24):
pass and slowly mother and daughter get to know the townsfolk.
But Ginger is not quite the utopia Elena imagines it
to be, and at risk is the one thing Elena
holds dear. Let's hear a sample of Still Water Creek
by Alison Booth, and it's narrated by Vivien Skinner.

S3 (02:43):
Elena's first impression was of light. Light glancing off the water.
Light sluicing the valley. Light shaping the folds of the
green hills that tumbled down to meet the sea. A
golden light for the sun was sinking fast. Surely the
bus must soon arrive at Jinjira. She and Zedra were

(03:06):
the only passengers left after a sun dried woman wearing
a floral dress and a miscellany of string bags, had
alighted several miles back. Before long it would be dark,
but not before they saw the cottage. Pray God, not
before then, for Ilona couldn't bear to reach a new
place after night had fallen. There had been too many

(03:30):
arrivals after dark. The first was in that cold Latvian
winter at the concentration camp near Riga, and after the liberation,
a series of displaced persons camps and ultimately her arrival
in England. Only in Sydney had she disembarked in daylight,

(03:51):
this time with her husband Alexei and small daughter Dzidra.
The three of them walking down the ship's gangway in
the harsh morning light of a summer's day. But she
would not dwell on the past when today's journey was
looking so promising. When the light was streaming down the
valley and illuminating Exedras face so that her sallow skin

(04:14):
assumed an unusual radiance. Ilona examined her daughter, only nine
years old, but already she was striking with that combination
of upturned nose, short upper lip, and a disproportionately high forehead.
And the pretty dark curls that were just like those

(04:34):
of poor, dead Alexei. Look at the sign. Zaira pointed
to a white sign at the side of the road.
Welcome to Wilbur Wilbur Shire. And underneath, in smaller letters.
Drive carefully.

S2 (04:50):
And that was a sample of Stillwater Creek, part one
in the books by Alison L Booth. Alison, is Alison
our middle initial L and then Booth. Both. Both. That
book goes for 11 hours. In Chris Thomson's interview, Alison

(05:12):
is talking about a new book, which is a murder
mystery historical set in Australia. Death at Borumba. It's a
new book. It is available in audio, but we don't
have it in the library yet, so this is a
good opportunity for people to, um, add their suggestion to
get the book into the library collection. Small town. Big secrets.

(05:35):
Death at Borumba. But without further ado, let's have a
listen to Chris Thompson speaking with Alison Al Booth.

S4 (05:42):
Well, let's stick with literature as a theme. Uh, for
our next guest. Um, uh, a pretty experienced author, um, who,
unless I'm mistaken for her eighth book, is having a
crack at crime fiction and a pretty good crack at is. Uh,

(06:03):
welcome to the show, Alison Booth.

S5 (06:06):
Thank you.

S4 (06:08):
Um, and congratulations on your book, Death at Borumba. Um,
a kind of historical crime fiction.

S5 (06:15):
Yes, yes it is. It's set in mainly in 1919,
immediately after the end of the First World War. Um,
would you like me to talk a bit about that or.

S4 (06:26):
Yeah. Tell us a little bit about Jack O'Rourke, and
let's not give anything away. But in fact, the story
starts just before the First World War. And then the
bulk of it happens after he returns from overseas.

S5 (06:39):
Yes. Um, so it starts, as you mentioned, in 1915,
when Jack O'Rourke is it's a couple of days before
his embarkation to go and fight in the First World War,
and he's travelling along around Sydney Harbour near Walsh Bay,

(07:01):
when he sees a couple of youths attack an old
man at the edge of the harbor, and they picked
his pocket and they tossed his case into the water.
And then they push him in and dash off, and
it becomes clear to Jack that this guy can't swim.

(07:21):
So before he even thinks twice about it, he jumps
into the water and rescues him. And, um. And then
when he comes back from war in late 1919, he
is surprised to discover, well, first of all, that the
old man, Sam Lomond, whom he rescued, has died subsequently.

(07:46):
And secondly, he's left Jack his property, which is down
south at the back of Eden, in the escarpment there.
And so Jack, um, is perplexed about both of these things,
and he heads off by steamer down to read. And

(08:07):
then he goes to the, um, property, which is called Lumumba. Um,
and it's next to the little town of Warrawong.

S4 (08:16):
And that's where we kind of find ourselves in the
midst of what turns out to be a murder mystery. Um.

S5 (08:23):
That's right. Yes.

S4 (08:24):
But, Alison, the thing that I really enjoyed about this book,
I mean, I liked the murder mystery was great, and
the characters were terrific, but I had no idea about
the Russian element in migration in Australia in the early
part of the 20th century. It's it's a really great

(08:45):
element of this book, the whole kind of Russian culture.

S5 (08:50):
Yes. Well, that was a surprise to a lot of people,
I think. And I discovered that through, well, I loved
history when I was at school and I read a
lot of Russian history, um, and then reading around, you know,
the stories of the Trans-Siberian railway and its construction. And
so that when the, um. When the revolution occurred in

(09:14):
October 1917, what that and that descended into terrible civil
war with the Reds fighting the whites and. But what
that railway meant was that people could now get out
of Russia and Siberia via the railway or near the railway,
and go to Vladivostok and or Harbin and Shanghai, and

(09:39):
then make their way either to America or, um, to Australia.
And the first port of call they came to when
they hit Australia was Brisbane. So that's where a lot
of them got off. So by the end of the war,
there were I think 6000 Russians in Australia and 4000

(10:00):
of them were in Queensland. And of course, there's lots
of badging about that because the Australian government had changed,
was changing its policy towards Russia not wanting any communists
coming to Australia, as you can imagine. But anyway, some
of these characters made their way south. And the story

(10:23):
that I've written, it begins with, well, not quite begins,
but somewhere near the beginning. Um, there's a guy, a
Russian guy, who turns up, who's turned up in the
village of Warrawong, and that's his origin.

S4 (10:41):
And then Jack becomes sort of involved in can he
solve the mystery of, um, uh, who the murderer might be?
Let's not give too much away. Um, but there's a
little there's a little bit of romance in there, Alison.
And there's a little bit of tension about whether Jack's

(11:02):
a suspect or not and all that kind of stuff. It.
I wondered, though, when I was reading it. Did the
Russian element come first for you, and then you looked
for a story that would allow you to explore that?
Or were you writing Death at Borumba and then thought
I could work the Russian army into that?

S5 (11:24):
It was the latter, yes. I began writing it really
as a homage to my grandparents and great grandparents generation
with the war in it. But the, um. And I
was interested in the, you know, the sectarian issues associated
with the Irish in parts of Australia and then the

(11:48):
Russian element that came through by accident, actually, because when
I was researching other things in the, uh, for the novel,
I came across an article written by, um, a law
new academic from the University of Wollongong, and it was
about her grandfather who had come from Russia. He was

(12:10):
a Russian Jew, actually, and he'd come from Russia and
made his way down to Australia and to Brisbane. The
way I just described, and I thought that was just
such a fantastic story and, you know, little known. It
was a very moving story she told about finding out
how her grandfather got into the country. So I thought

(12:32):
I had to include that.

S4 (12:35):
And the other really strong element in this story that
kind of sits in the background a bit, but but
is really important. And that's the strained relationship between Jack
and his father, the the kind of family element of that. Yes.

S5 (12:51):
It's yes. It's very it's important to, to Jack because
everything that he's done in his life has irritated his
father to some extent. And it's I mean, I think
this is often the case when the first born son
is supposed to carry the burden of inheritance, does something

(13:12):
which the father hadn't planned for. And that's what happened
with Jack and his father was Jack went to agricultural college. Fantastic.
He got a bursary and he studied not ordinary, which
his father wanted him to do so he could run
the family orchard. But he chose to study sheep or

(13:34):
animal husbandry, or should I say? And then after that,
he war broke out. And what did he do? He enlisted.
And his father was very upset about that. Um, so
there's this sort of tension simmering in the background, and
I tried to do it very subtly because I wanted

(13:54):
the story to be a murder, but I wanted that
element of Jack's Site development to come.

S4 (14:04):
And that works very well. And it's also clear, um,
in the way the story unfolds, your love of history. Um, now,
obviously this book's been out for a little while. Um,
we can get it at all good bookshops, but very soon, uh,
on the 23rd of September, uh, you've got an audiobook

(14:25):
version coming out as well. So, um, many of our
audience will be interested to hear that news. Um, and
they can grab themselves a copy of Death at Borumba. Um,
I'm going to say it's by Alison Booth, but on
the cover, you'll see it is al Booth. Is this
the first of many crime fictions for you, Alison?

S5 (14:46):
Well, I hope so.

S4 (14:49):
Well, uh, we will, uh, keep our eye on on
the crime fiction section of the bookshops to see what's next.
Alison Booth, congratulations again on the book Death at Borumba.
And thanks for being on the show.

S5 (15:03):
Well, thank you, Chris, for inviting me on the show.
It's a great pleasure.

S2 (15:06):
And that was Chris Thompson from Behind the Scenes, another
Vision Australia radio program talking with Alison L Booth. A
little bit about Alison. Not only is Alison an author,
she's also an Australian labor economist and novelist who is
a professor of economics at the Australian National University. She's
the author of six novels, and this is the latest.

(15:27):
This was published only just this year, 2025. And if
you would like to suggest we, um, have get some
death at borumba into the collection, it is death at
and I'll spell the name b o r o m
b b o r o m b Alison l booth.

(15:50):
And I'm here at Alison Booth's website. Um, she's actually
written eight novels. Um, and the website is Alison Booth.
All one word dot net slash books. Alison Booth books.
And you can also contact Alison and give us some
feedback about how how what you think of her, um,
writing through that website. The next audio book comes from

(16:17):
the incredible fact that John Lennon, if he had been
alive today, would be 85 years old. And we have
many books about John Lennon in the library collection. But
a recent book caught my eye, and this is Maybe
I'm Amazed, which is a story of love and connection
in ten songs. This is by John Harris, obsessed with

(16:41):
music as a child, listening to everything he could lay
his hands on, going to gigs, starting a band and
then pursuing a career in music journalism. John Harris had
no idea that he was, in fact, preparing himself for
the greatest challenge of his life. But so it transpired
when his son James was born and three years later

(17:02):
diagnosed with autism. Music became their main form of communication,
a hugely shared passion, and it is no exaggeration to
say the sound that saved them. Opening with Paul McCartney's
magical little pre Glastonbury gig in 2022, in Frome, where
John and James live, and taking in the high tech

(17:25):
pyrotechnics of a 3D Kraftwerk extravaganza, the simple chords of
a Velvet Underground song, some Funkadelic, clash and many other
tunes along the way, James returns to the Beatles again
and again. Like a refrain, the songs seem woven into
the very fabric of his being an essential part of

(17:46):
who he is. In this extraordinary memoir, John Harris tells
the story of how music has opened up the world
to James one song at a time. It takes us
through the travails of raising an autistic child in a
prejudiced world, and investigates why it is that a large
proportion of the million odd neurodiverse people in the UK

(18:07):
have perfect pitch and a particular aptitude for music. In
considering the intense and transcendent way that James absorbs and
connects with music, Maybe I'm Amazed has lessons in living
and listening for us all. Let's hear a sample of
Maybe I'm Amazed a Story of Love and Connection in
ten Songs by John Harris, and it's narrated by John Harris.

S6 (18:30):
Paul McCartney is standing on the stage no more than
five metres away, so close that I can see the
buttons on his shirt, the seams of his jeans and
the beads of sweat on his face. Why am I
getting the feeling we're gonna have some fun in here tonight,
he says, and we all roar. The noise is deafening.
The sound made by people who are ecstatically happy to

(18:51):
be here but cannot quite believe that what they are
in the midst of is actually happening for the next
hour and a half. I watch him play an 80
year old virtuoso, drawing music from his base with an
age defying physicality and commitment, leading his band into every
song with a joy that radiates into the crowd. But
drawn as I am to the stage, my eyes keep

(19:14):
turning to watch the kids standing just to my left,
a teenager tall enough to get a full view of
the stage, dressed in a tangerine colored Magical Mystery Tour
t shirt and completely transfixed. During some songs, he joyously
leaps from one foot to the other in perfect time
with the music. When the crowd clap or sway in unison,

(19:35):
he joins in with even more enthusiasm than the people
around him. Whenever the musicians on the stage play anything
by the Beatles, one thing is instantly obvious. Unusually for
one so young, he knows every word and all the
nuances and details of the music in between. If an
occasion like this is meant to be transcendent and mood altering.

(19:56):
That is exactly what he's experiencing. Observing him from the outside.
It seems to me that more than anyone else here,
the sheer wonder of what is happening in front of
us is something he can feel. We are all collectively
immersed in what we are watching and hearing. But he
is so held in the moment that he's almost in
an altered state. This is my son, James. He's 15.

(20:19):
Since he was very small, he is relentlessly played Beatles songs,
first on the iPod he taught himself to use when
he was only two, and then on computers, phones and
the record player whose workings are still a source of
endless fascination. At his first school, his reward when he
completed his work was often time in the school hall
blaring out their music.

S2 (20:39):
And that was Maybe I'm Amazed a Story of Love
and Connection in ten Songs by John Harris. John is J.
John Harris h a r I s h a How
that book goes for seven hours and with another tenuous
link to John Lennon, though I'm sure he's talked about

(21:01):
in this particular book is Jennifer Juniper, and this is
a memoir by Jennifer Boyd. Jenny Boyd's extraordinary life is
the stuff of movies and novels, a story of incredible
people and places experienced at a pivotal time in the
20th century as an up and coming young model, Jenny
found herself at the heart of Carnaby Street in London,

(21:24):
immersed in the fashion and pop culture of the Swinging
60s with boyfriend Mick Fleetwood, sister Patti, George Harrison and
the rest of the Beatles. She lived the London scene,
but as a natural flower child, Jenny soon became part
of the counterculture in San Francisco during the Flower Power era,
witnessing the Summer of love. She was the inspiration for

(21:47):
Donovan Donovan's famous song Jennifer Juniper, and her photograph was
featured inside the box set of his eponymous album, A
gift from a flower to a garden. After working in
the Beatles shop Apple, the first of its kind, Jenny
attended Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India to study meditation

(22:08):
with her sister and the Beatles, witnessing their creativity and
the genesis of songs that would later appear on the
White Album. Despite being attuned to the spiritual bloom and
innocence of the 60s, Jenny also experienced first hand the
turmoil and decadence of the 70s and 80s. Her two
marriages to Mick Fleetwood, found a member of Fleetwood Mac,

(22:30):
brought her to the forefront of the world of rock
and roll and its fame, money, drugs and heartache, struggling
in the darkness to find and develop her own voice
and identity. Jenny went to college, achieving a masters in
Counselling Psychology and a PhD in Humanities. Her dissertation on
musicians and creativity became the critically acclaimed book Musicians in Tune.

(22:54):
Jenny has spent her life in the company of some
of the greatest musical and cultural influences of the last
50 years, and the journey she takes to finding her
own sense of self and creative ability makes Jennifer Juniper
a truly captivating and inspiring story. Let's hear a sample
of Jennifer Juniper by Jenny Boyd, and it's narrated by

(23:16):
Jenny Boyd.

S7 (23:17):
I remember vividly the first time I heard of the Beatles.
It was a normal Saturday in November 1962, and I
had recently turned 15. My friends had given me a
lift home after a morning of walking around Wimbledon and
listening to our favourite 45, in the local record shop.

(23:37):
Just before I opened the door. Love Me Do came
onto the radio. That was it. Turn it up, I shouted,
my hand still resting on the door handle of the car.
It was a never to be forgotten moment. Something new
and completely different had just arrived. Everyone stopped what he

(23:58):
or she was doing or saying. The music was turned
up and we all stared at the radio. The sound
of voices singing in harmony and the wail of a
harmonica pinned me to my seat. A wave of happiness
ran through my veins. Everything about this song, even the
simple words, ignited my imagination. Who are they? I asked

(24:21):
the Beatles, someone answered. I smiled, enchanted with the idea
of a group being named after an insect. Little did
I know then that I was listening to a band
of musicians who were to go down in history as
defining the 60s. Nor could I have imagined that in
just over a year, my sister would play a part

(24:43):
in the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, or that
she would become George Harrison's girlfriend. Pattie had left home
the year before. And I missed her dreadfully. I had
four other siblings, but she and I were the closest.
Pattie and I worked as an apprentice at the Elizabeth
Arden Beauty salon. This meant that she could afford to

(25:06):
leave home and share a flat with one of her girlfriends.
We were frequently in touch and I would visit her
in Chelsea, or she would come home for Sunday lunch
with her photographer boyfriend.

S2 (25:19):
And that was a sample of Jennifer Juniper by Jenny Boyd.
Jenny is j e y b o y b o y,
and that book goes for 10.5 hours. It was originally
published in 2020. Thank you for joining us on Hear

(25:47):
This today. Thank you to Chris Thompson from behind the
scenes and and Alison Al Booth for the chat today
about the new book Death at Borumba. Remember, if you
would like to suggest that book for the library, you
can always ring the library or you can email them.
The same goes if you'd like to join the library
and enjoy the over 60,000 audio books that are available

(26:10):
and constantly being added to the newspapers and magazines as well,
and Braille books. If you're a Braille reader, you just
need to ring one 365 4656. That's one 365 4656.
Or you can email library at Vision Australia. That's library
at Vision Australia. Have a lovely week and we'll be

(26:33):
back next week with more here this.